**The Apterous Olympics 2012 (Fri 11th May-Thu 26th July)**

[Marcus Hares]

Last June I thought about creating an Apterous-style series of tournaments to commemorate the London Olympics which are now a little over 3 months away. In August/September of last year I held a 9-day mini-series of tournaments and it quickly became clear that the original plan to host 149 tournaments across 30 weeks was way too ambitious.

That said, there will still be an Apterous Olympics which will start 4 weeks from now on Friday 11th May and will continue every other evening until the eve of the real Olympics on Thursday 26th July. This much scaled-down version of the original idea will still incorporate every format that Apterous has to offer - in the real Olympics there are 26 sports which break down into 39 disciplines so our version of the Olympics will cover all 39 formats, including the recently added Nice and Latin formats.

Each tournament will start at 8pm and be played in real time meaning that all participants will be playing simultaneously. Recent spot tournaments have shown that the double-elimination method works very well - it creates a second chance for everyone and also throws up a definite 1st, 2nd and 3rd place at the end of the tournament (or virtual gold, silver and bronze medallists).

When the original idea was raised many players liked the idea of competing for a "team" - this will be incorporated into the series, and players who join a tournament for the first time will be assigned a team at random from one of the 8 best-finishing nations from the last Olympics (China, USA, Russia, Great Britain, Germany, Australia, South Korea and Japan). Players will stay in these teams for the duration of the series. This means you can still cheer on your fellow team-mates even if you have lost early in a tournament or haven't been able to make it. There will be no restrictions on the amount of players who can enter a tournament - you can enter as many or as few as you like.

Full results and virtual medals tables will be updated via a dedicated external website which will keep you updated with how each team and individual is faring. The virtual medal tables are a fun diversion which will accompany the series but I'm excited to reveal that ACTUAL gold, silver and bronze medals will be awarded to the top 3 finishing players in the individual virtual medal table. When I say "actual" I mean they're medals made of metal with the appearance of gold, silver and bronze (I'm not THAT rich!) - unfortunately there is no chocolate inside but they're pretty weighty and come with a proper ribbon so that you can wear it with (hopefully) pride. The top 3 finishing players will be ranked by number of "golds" won first, then by "silvers", then by "bronzes" - in the event of a tie for virtual medals at the end of the series then those players will play off to determine where the real medals go.

Whether you're a hardened regular who loves all the formats, or a specialist who fancies their chances at certain events, there should be something for everyone. So when are these tournaments? Click on the link below which will take you to the dedicated website which lists the dates for each tournament. This will be the website which will be updated after each tournament with the latest results/medals:

Click here for the website which will accompany the series - it's a little bare at the moment but will fill in nicely once the series gets underway

Thanks for listening and I hope to see you all playing very soon,
Marcus

[Rhys Benjamin]

In. Doesn't clash with Eurovision. Just.

[Jennifer Steadman]

Sounds great. Will you want people to start registering interest in specific events in advance, or is it just a case of turning up in the evenings of your chosen events?

[Marcus Hares]

Sounds great. Will you want people to start registering interest in specific events in advance, or is it just a case of turning up in the evenings of your chosen events?

No advance registration needed Jen - just turn up as and when you fancy it

[Thomas Carey]

Confused as to whether you've got to register or not.

If yes - in.
If no - in anyway.

[Marcus Hares]

Confused as to whether you've got to register or not.

If yes - in.
If no - in anyway.

See above Thomas - just turn up when it suits you, you can play in as many or as few as you like - you don't need to register now, just within half an hour of the start of each tournament

[Adam Gillard]

I'd just like to say at this point that a ridiculous amount of effort and preparation has gone in to this (Marcus first consulted me about it nearly a year ago I think), so hats off to Marcus for it finally coming to fruition. I also like the fact that an online tournament has tangible prizes, so Marcus has put his money as well as his time into this! Should be fun!

[Andy Platt]

Like it.

At first it seems a little excessive but there's something for everyone.
My worry would be that participation might be low in some of the less popular events, but we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

Cheers for your efforts Marcus

[Marcus Hares]

Like it.

At first it seems a little excessive but there's something for everyone.
My worry would be that participation might be low in some of the less popular events, but we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

Cheers for your efforts Marcus

No problem, I enjoy hosting these. Extravagant maybe but definitely not excessive - nobody is compelled to play all the tournaments, just the ones that suit them. Understand your point about low participation in the funkier formats - but for instance, let's assume Adam wins the Hebrew tournament (as he's one of the few people who actually understands it), that still leaves room for 2 other people to pick up a medal they might not have expected. Hopefully people will play as often as possible, even in formats they wouldn't normally choose to play.

[Rhys Benjamin]

BUMP

Loving that website, Marcus. Although I think I'll be outclassed in every single sport, I've got the 14th July (Spoilers) in my diary!!

[Marcus Hares]

A couple of people have asked me when is the best time to register for a tournament for this series. I will be accepting entries in the room up to half an hour before each tournament starts - this prevents people from registering days or weeks in advance and then not showing up. I will be aiming to start each tournament at 8pm so I'll be in the room by 7.30pm to accept entries.

Clarification on some other points - the player at the top of the pairing invites the player at the bottom of the pairing, I will announce all the pairings for each tournament in the room and players have 5 minutes to start their match from each announcement and also have 5 minutes to return to their game should they lose connection. This may sound strict but it helps with the flow of the tournament.

Unfortunately once a tournament is in progress I cannot accept further players.

Also, the real medals are awarded to the players filling the top 3 positions in the virtual medal table - they aren't awarded for each tournament (I'm not made of money!)

If anyone has any other queries please let me know either here or grab me in the room.

The recent test live tournaments I've hosted have proved to be fairly successful so I hope the Apterous Olympics will be no different - so whether you subscribe to the expression "The most important thing is not winning but taking part" or "Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing" hopefully everyone who competes will have fun along the way!

Marcus

[Jennifer Steadman]

This should proooooobably be bumped out of Announcements now.

[Ian Volante]

In.